About 15 members of the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) recently posted from the Ikot Itie Udung, Nsit Atai Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State camp, on Thursday abandoned their primary place of assignment following attacks by hoodlums.

The affected Corps members were posted to serve at the Community Secondary School, Uruk Atta 11, in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area.

One of the teachers, who spoke to The Nation, said: “The NYSC members were posted to this school on our request, and when they arrived we shared them to some private residence compounds at Obot Uboko and another compound along Uruk Atta 11-Okoyo village.”

He disclosed that the suspected cultists had attacked the compound and disposed them of personal belongings including laptops, phones and petty cash.

More worrisome to them, according to one Effiong Ekeke, a local resident was that: “the cultists also raped some of the female members, an action he said, forced them to flee the community.

“Consequently, they (the Corps members) abandoned the school and left the community in protest over the lack of security.”

Confirming the incident, Donald Iwok, a former Councillor, who represented the area at the return of democracy in 1999, attributed the incident to what he described as: “the collapse of security in some communities in the area.

“In recent times, there had been incidences of cult clashes leading to the death of over 15 people in this axis along, especially in communities like Ikot Udobong, Okoyo, Uruk Atta 11, Ikpe and Otoro”, he recalled, adding “between Monday and Wednesday this week, two persons were also killed in Ikot Mkporikpo and Obon Ebot villages.”

Calling on the Police to beef up security in the area, Iwok, an alumnus of the affected school, expressed worry that incidences of cultism, robbery and kidnapping for ransom, have become the order of the day in the area.

The Chairman of Etim Ekpo Local Government, Udeme Eduo, who lamented that the scourge of cultism has created serious tension in the Council sued for calm, assuring that he was working with security agencies to restore peace.

The Commissioner of Police (CP) Mr. Donald Awunah, said a number of suspected cultists have been arrested following the launch of ‘Operation Impact’ in the area.